Rowdy Roddy Piper passing away last week was another devastating blow to the wrestling community as he was a true original. No one walked down to the ring, delivered a promo and told a story during his matches like he did. We’ve lost a number of iconic superstars this year, including Dusty Rhodes; but to me the death of Roddy Piper is one of the most tragic because of one reason:

He was never a world champion for any of the big league companies like WWE or WCW.

Now don’t get me wrong, Piper transcended the need for any world championship belt with many memorable matches, his iconic role in “They Live” and with his promos. His role as a heel during his massive feud with Hulk Hogan helped cement Hogan’s run on top for years, essentially breathing financial life into the WWF for a good portion of the 80’s. He was an essential piece of the puzzle that made WWF what it was back then and not once did he receive the ultimate acknowledgement of that hard work in the form of a WWF Championship run. That’s a tragedy, folks. I highly doubt a run with Piper as champion would have hurt WWF’s bottom line and he without a doubt knew how to draw heat from the crowd as a heel. The classic scenario of Piper winning the championship with unhanded tactics against 80’s icon Hulk Hogan would have setup the ultimate “Face VS Heel.” program, with Hogan eventually winning the title back that he was cheated out of. Good triumphs over evil. It’s been told a million times, but not the way Piper would have done it with that belt.

The thing that bothers me about Piper not having his name attached to the linage of a world championship is for the historical aspect of the industry. Think about it: In three or four generations from now when a new wrestling fan looks at the history of the WWE title, they will have a better chance of learning about The Great Khali than they will of Rowdy Roddy Piper based on that list of who held the title. Seasoned wrestling fans know that a world title on you doesn’t make you the man, but once you’ve held that title, your chances of being remembered historical increase dramatically over those who don’t. While its true that he won the WWF Intercontinental Championship, there’s always the chance that WWE could sweep that title under the rug. They have once before.

I think the fact that Piper was never given a World Championship run bothered him. Inside MMA replayed a segment from 2007/2008 where they interviewed him and Bas Rutten introduced him as a “World champion wrestling superstar.” You could tell that Piper wanted to correct him and tell him: “They never gave me that chance, buddy.” but instead he laughed it off and proceeded with the interview like a pro.

Roddy Piper should not be forgotten and will most likely never be, but it’s up to us as fans of this industry to keep his legacy alive where the promoters failed to do so.

We’ve seen a number of different theme songs throughout the years open WWE RAW, but none of them has ever stood out to me as much when Anthrax performed “All Together Now” for the second hour of RAW which was better known as the War Zone back then.

Now, I was a WCW guy and growing up with the Nitro theme song, I never thought much of that WCW brand song. The song itself was a pretty generic guitar rift and lacked any sort of vocals. The intro to Nitro also seemed more like the opening to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle video game than a Pro Wrestling program.

The first time I saw the intro for RAW in 97/98 with “All Together Now”, I was blown away. This intro screamed “All bets are off, anything goes!” with this program. Helicopters, things blowing up, and various wrestlers exchanging punches with each other in a wrestling ring…THAT WAS ON FIRE! That’s right! I honestly think that the ring on fire in this intro is what eventually inspired the inferno match that would come a few years later. Most importantly though, the music set the tone with its heavy guitar rifts and wrestling inspired lyrics:

Rock n’ roll’s like fightin’ in the ring, we got together, to do our thing, we all play hard, we all play low, that’s why we got together to sing this song.

To me, the song is what sealed the deal for that intro being one of the best intros to a wrestling program and being one of my favorite songs throughout RAW’s history featured as the intro. I’m really enjoying watching the Attitude Era RAW episodes and hearing thie song again!